Observed, Portland
27
Dec 08

Dark Side of Crappy Weather

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Dark Side of Crappy Weather

Portland’s rapidly melting blanket of snow reveals how whacked out the city became during its record-setting bout of wintry weather. Many people who zealously clean up after their pooping dogs didn’t. The result: on the sidewalks there’s lots more to slip on than patches of slushy ice.

Were dog owners too cold and hurried to bother? Did they think the snow would make the droppings permanently vanish? If I was generous, I’d conclude it was snowing so hard that people simply lost sight of what Rover left behind.

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Memories, Observed, Portland
30
Jun 08

Poodle hip, not standard

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Portland is dog crazy. Walk a dog through neighborhoods like mine (Irvington) and you’ll get more oohs and ahs from passersby than if pushing a cute baby in a stroller. The city reportedly has the country’s highest per capita of canines.

Like many of their owners, some Portland dogs display individuality via bodily adornments. Take Olive’s new hairdo, a henna treatment that sets her apart from other standard poodles. She caught my eye today in the pooch procession past my home office.

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Observed
13
May 08

Doggy exercise and doom

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A small story, courtesy of my home office window in the Irvington neighborhood of Northeast Portland:

Many evenings a woman rides past on a recumbent bike with her two leashed Weimaraners striding behind her. Many mornings another woman drives a sedan slowly and close to the curb while her dog – a fox terrier, I think – scrambles along the sidewalk.

The second woman represents in microcosm a significantly larger story that preeminent environmental writer Bill McKibben told Sunday in the Los Angeles Times. The jist: we’re all in big trouble unless the woman starts emulating the Weimaraner owner or at least parks her car and walks with her dog.

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